


Paws for Trouble

by leggyfae



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cursed Marco Bott, Fantasy, JeanMarco Gift Exchange, JeanMarco Gift Exchange 2019, M/M, Prince Marco Bott, Witch Jean Kirstein, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21948301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leggyfae/pseuds/leggyfae
Summary: Jean thinks his life is completely normal for an average witch. Until he finds out a family secret that turns his world upside down.
Relationships: Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20
Collections: JeanMarco Gift Exchange 2019





	Paws for Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fishy_noot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishy_noot/gifts).



Jean was a smart guy. Maybe not the brightest at times, but smart. He learned quickly, he knew his craft like the back of his hand. Maybe he wasn't the best with people, but that was fine as long as he kept his shopping trips to the village short. Jean definitely wasn't dumb or stupid or foolish. But he was _definitely_ questioning the sight before him.

His family had had the damn cat for years. He'd seen pictures of it with his great grandmother from long before she'd ever thought about marrying or having children. He'd heard the tales of how the cat was a family familiar, and as long as the bloodline continued, so too would the life of the cat. Blah blah magic bullshit that he wasn't as into as he probably should have been.

Point was, the cat was old. Older than him. And he'd been passed down to Jean by his mother on his twentieth birthday. Just as the cat had been passed down to his mother on her twentieth birthday. 

That had been a month ago, and ever since, Jean had felt a surge in his powers and a rise in his skill. All because he’d had the cat to help him with grounding and channeling energy. But now? _Now…_

Now Jean watched as the cat shifted into a man, bare as a babe and hotter than Jean had the heart to handle, and scrambled for clothes tucked into a hollow tree. Jean blinked, scrubbing at his eyes as he watched the man tug his trousers on, trying not to bite his lip as the man’s ass was covered.

But… _Fuck._ That was his _cat?_ That person rushing to get dressed was his family’s cat. His fucking familiar. He shouldn’t be a guy. Let alone a _hot_ guy. He was a cat.

Jean scrubbed at his eyes harder. No. No… He was just seeing things, right? He’d been up all night-- practicing spells and working on potions --there was no way that he’d just seen his cat turn into a man. Absolutely no way. He’d drop his hands and there wouldn’t be anything there except for the Mage Root that he’d come to collect under the light of the sunrise.

Jean dropped his hands, blinking the spots out of his vision, and looked around. 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He let out a huff and nodded to himself, collecting the root and making his way back to his house on the far edge of the forest. He was just seeing things because he’d been up all night.

~

When Jean woke up late that next day he couldn’t get the thought of what he’d _thought_ he’d seen that morning out of his head. There was no way that it could be real. But… In Jean’s world, practically nothing was impossible. The only way to be sure would be to try and see it again.

Shortly after the sun set, his cat was back, letting himself in through the open window in Jean’s work room. The cat let out a low trill and wandered over to Jean, sitting down by his feet.

Jean stared into deep yellow eyes for a long beat, then sighed and reached down to pet Marco like he normally did.

“Hey, you… Easy night tonight, alright? We did a lot last night, so we both need to rest. You hungry?” Jean grabbed one of his books from the shelf and flipped through it as he made his way to the kitchen.

He’d read a bit and then send Marco on his way, then go back to that clearing just before the sun rose so he could make sure he wasn’t going completely crazy.

After feeding both himself and Marco, Jean settled into his favourite chair and pat his lap. A few moments later had Marco hopping up and settling in. He purred as Jean pet him idly, reading through his great grandmother’s grimoire. Jean remembered that she had a detailed section about Mage Root, it was just a matter of finding it in the mess of a journal.

~

Hours passed like that, Jean petting Marco as he skimmed through books, adding sections to his own grimoire with careful script. As the moon reached her peak, Jean felt exhaustion weigh heavy on him. He yawned and gave Marco a final pat, gently guiding him to jump down.

“Okay… Let’s… Let’s call it quits tonight. You can go and do… Whatever it is that you do whenever you’re not here. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jean said as he stood to start cleaning up.

Marco meowed at him, rubbing against his legs before quickly letting himself out. Jean watched as the black cat disappeared into the dark. Now all he had to do was wait until almost sunrise.

~

Marco stretched after he shifted back, letting out a drawn out groan as his spine popped back into place. Almost eighty years of being forced to change under the moonlight and he still wasn’t used to the shift. He scratched at his chest and looked around for the tree that he usually hid his clothing in, stilling when he heard a soft gasp.

He looked over his shoulder and felt his stomach sink at seeing Jean looking back at him, poorly hidden behind a bush.

“Y-You…”

Fuck… Jean wasn’t supposed to know until next year. Their bond was too fresh, too at risk of breaking if Jean decided that he wasn’t interested in having a cursed man as his familiar.

“You’re… But…”

Marco would never be able to live a normal life if Jean decided that he didn’t want him. Cursed twice. Once for his own foolishness and once in goodwill. Once to be a cat forever.

“You’re _Marco!_ ”

And once to be able to have his human form under the sunlight as long as he was bonded to someone of the Kirschtein bloodline.

“Jean… I know that you probably have questions…” Marco started, reaching out to Jean before he realized he still hadn’t gotten dressed yet.

It appeared that Jean realized the same thing, glanging up and down Marco’s body before turning away with a blush as Marco tugged his clothes on.

“I… I can explain everything, okay. Just… Don’t break the familiar bond, please?”

Jean blinked at Marco, owlish and… god… so cute. Marco always thought that Jean was cute since he’d sprouted up from the gangly teen he used to be into the man he was now.

“Explain the fact that you’re my cat to me?” Jean questioned. 

Marco nodded.

“Well… _Obviously_ you are. I just watched you change.” Jean stared at Marco, eyes narrowed. “Does my mother know about this?”

Marco let out a snort of a laugh. “You just watched me turn into a human and _that’s_ your first question. You never did have the best priorities. Yes, your mother knows.”

Jean nodded slowly, staring at his feet. “This is going to be a long story, huh? Come back to the house and tell me?”

“You won’t break the bond?”

“With how much better my magic has been doing? I’d be stupid to.”

Marco laughed and nodded, gesturing for Jean to start walking. “Alright. Lead the way.”

~

Hours of explaining later and Jean, aside from having thousands of questions, was more than willing to listen and try to understand.

“So… Let me get this straight…” Jean began. “You were a prince.” Marco nodded. “And you managed to insult the most powerful witch of your time.” Another nod. “And she turned you into a cat?”

“An immortal cat. Cursed to live my life as an outcast because of my actions.”

“Right… And you ran into my great grandmother who tried to make you her familiar, but couldn’t.” A slow nod from Marco. He opened his mouth to correct Jean only to be interrupted. “Not until she found out about your curse. So she… Cursed you again?”

Marco nodded again, taking a sip of his tea. “Yes. She… Added an addendum to the original curse. As long as I’m a bonded familiar to someone of her bloodline, then I can be human during the day.”

Jean hummed, standing and looking for his great grandmother’s grimoire. “You know… She mentioned how hard it was to get you as her familiar… I didn’t realize it was because you were actually a human at first. But… It makes sense now?”

Jean flipped to an early page in the grimoire, setting it down on the table in front of Marco. “Her spell, at least. It never read as a bonding spell. Makes sense that it’s a curse… Which… Well…”

Marco looked over the grimoire, trailing fond fingers over familiar writing. He’d been there for most of the content in the book before him, curled up against Jean’s great grandmother as she wrote by candlelight late into the night.

“Well what?”

“It just… It just means that I’ve got to figure out a way to curse you back into being a human.”

Marco raised a brow. “And how do you plan on doing that? Your great grandmother tried that. And your grandmother and mother too. What makes you think you can do it where they couldn’t?”

Jean grinned. “Call it an instinct. I’m not sure how to do it just yet. But you don’t mind hanging around and helping me figure it out, do you?”

“Well… It’s not like I’ve got much to lose. I don’t mind at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun writing this and I definitely have more planned, so please keep an eye out for it! I absolutely loved the prompts, I hope I did it justice!


End file.
